Sunday night's report from Grand Marais explorer Lonnie Dupre says he had 18 hours of sleep that was only briefly interrupted by two feet of snow that accumulated overnight and had to be cleared off.

Dupre is making his third attempt to be the first solo climber to reach the summit of Alaska's Denali in the winter.

Dupre spoke with his support crew around 11 AM Sunday. He said that due to hazy conditions on the mountain and unfavorable weather reports he wasn’t originally going to travel Sunday. By noon, having looked over the situation he decided go ahead and climb from 11,200 feet to 12,000 feet where he had previously left his sled. He brought up the majority of his gear to 13,000 feet just west of Windy Corner.

Having ascended about 2000ft and returning to to 11,200 feet within 4.5 hours, it was a tough slog and a long day since Dupre didn’t get started until late in the day.

Monday, weather permitting Lonnie aims to be at 14,000-foot camp by evening.